Battle of Hefei (234)

The Battle of Hefei occurred in 234 AD during the Three Kingdoms era. Sun Quan, the Emperor of Eastern Wu, led an army of 100,000 troops to attack Cao Wei at Hefei Castle in order to help his Shu allies with their invasion of Wei further west. Ultimately, the battle was inconclusive.

The Wu army laid siege to the new castle at Hefei, with Sun Quan's army being garrisoned near Chao Lake, Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin's force garrisoning Jiangxia and Miankou, and Sun Shao and Zhang Cheng advanced towards Guangling and Huaiyin. The Wei general Man Chong sought to send reinforcements to Zhang Ying, who was in command of the castle, but Tian Yu opposed the idea, arguing that the castle defenses were adequate and that the Wu army would attack the relief force. Liu Shao believed that Man Chong should focus on defending instead of attacking, and he had the relief force have more banners, flags, and war drums to give the illusion of a larger army arriving as a relief force. Emperor Cao Rui agreed with Liu Shao's strategy and dispatched the 8,000-strong relief force. Cao Rui personally led a naval fleet to lift the siege of Hefei Castle, and Man Chong set fire to the Wu siege engines. Sun Quan's own nephew Sun Tai was killed in the battle, and Sun Quan decided to withdraw his sickly troops upon hearing of Cao Rui's approach. All of the Wu armies withdrew from their invasions of Wei, and the concurrent Shu defeat at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains ended the Northern Expeditions chapter of the Three Kingdoms.